The American System’s Forgotten Hero

Part one of two: How an Irish radical helped the growth of American nationalism

The American System has a rich and deep history that is being unearthed by a new generation looking for an alternative to the failing status quo. Economic liberals, of both the Classical and New Deal varieties, have been well recognized but economic nationalists are less celebrated despite their historic accomplishments during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Reading the words of Alexander Hamilton and Henry Clay is essential to understanding how the American System emerged. But there were also less well renowned journalists and early economists who helped develop these ideas and build a movement that would form a crucial part in founding the Party of Lincoln. There is still much to relearn about how the United States constructed a new model of political economy as we look to achieve a similar feat today. At the heart of this process was a publisher from Ireland called Mathew Carey.

Writing in the 1930s historian Kenneth Wyder Rowe called Carey “a little known figure in a period of importance in the economic development of the United States.” This should change. Hamilton is rightly held up as the Founding Father most responsible for the American national developmentalist tradition but there were public intellectuals who did much to keep the Hamiltonian flame alive in the years after his death. Carey gathered support around him in Philadelphia to advocate for the “protecting system” influencing future generations, including his son Henry Charles Carey. Rather than writing from the august halls of Harvard or Yale, Carey promoted his ideas through journalism and publishing to create an organizational movement for Hamiltonian economics. He also observed and commented on the first three decades of the nineteenth century with a consistent economic philosophy. This work left a major mark on individuals such as Henry Clay and the Whig Party, paving the way for Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party.

Irish Radical to American Patriot

To understand Carey’s economic thought, it is important to first appreciate the experiences that forged his nationalistic approach as it reflected the broader development of the American republic. Carey was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1760. Despite the disapproval of his father, Carey loved books from an early age and joined a circulating library, becoming apprenticed to a bookseller named McDonnnel, “a hard, austere, master of the most repelling manners” and printed his first work “On the Subject of Dueling” in 1777. After writing an essay in 1779 calling for a repeal of the laws that restricted the rights of Irish Catholics, a reward of £40 was promised by local authorities for aid in arresting him and a lawyer hired to prosecute.

Carey had no choice but to flee to Paris and temporarily lay low as a result where he was introduced to Benjamin Franklin and given a job with his Passy printing shop. He also met the future French general Marquis de Lafayette and returned to Ireland a year later to edit the Freeman’s Journal. In 1783 he then became the owner of the Volunteer’s Journal, to “defend the Commerce, the Manufactures, and the political rights of Ireland, against the oppression and encroachments of Great Britain” as Carey put it, providing a voice for Irish patriot and radical opinion. It covered issues as diverse as depopulation, land values, agriculture, commerce, trade, and credit, giving Carey a firm grasp on economic and financial affairs.

“Good God! How long will the misery of this nation be prolonged! And how long will the name of England continue to convey to our minds no other ideas, but those of monopoly, duplicity, corruption, and treachery”, Carey declared to his readers. This sparked incendiary essays and advertisements against his words, leading to Parliament ordering Carey to be arrested on April 7, 1784. Charged with libel, Carey sold the journal to his brother for £500 and emigrated to America disguised in women’s clothing with only 25 guineas in his pocket on September 7, 1784. A travelling companion, Mr. Wallace, later informed Lafayette that Carey was in the United States. They renewed their acquaintance in December that year in Philadelphia and Lafayette sent Carey a $400 loan (with Carey returning the whole sum to him in cash in 1824).

Carey began his new life in America by buying an old printing press at auction and launching the Pennsylvania Herald and aligning with the Jeffersonian Republicans. But again, his presence would provoke a strong response. Colonel Eleazer Oswald, editor of the Federalist-supporting Independent Gazetteer, did not want competition. For an injection of capital, Carey took on William Spotswood and Christopher Talbot as his new partners. In a brilliant move, Carey began publishing accounts of the state Assembly debates which saved his business from financial ruin. Oswald was offended that an Irish immigrant should take such a prominent role in public life, believing there should be “No office of honor, trust, or profit in the United States for any person of foreign birth”. Carey, however, supported his fellow immigrants and backed the new Society for the Lately Adopted Sons of Pennsylvania, which was patriotic and democratic in equal measure. Tensions between Carey and Oswald escalated until they fought a duel, resulting in the former being shot in the thigh.

Taking his profile to new heights, Carey launched the Columbian Magazine in September 1786, which featured an essay on building a canal between the Delaware and Ohio rivers, signaling his interest in internal improvements. He also started The American Museum in January 1787. The list of prestigious subscribers included George Washington and Franklin, publishing essays on the economic, social, and political life of the nation. Washington wrote on June 25, 1788, “A more useful literary plan has never been undertaken in America”. In 1790, Carey, Stewart, and Company was formed and the publication became the American Museum or Universal Magazine to broaden its appeal with more entertainment content until it ceased publication in 1792. It was more a literary triumph than a financial one due to Carey’s mismanagement of the subscription list, prices, and number of copies printed. He even asked to borrow money from Washington twice.

Becoming more established in his new country, Carey married Bridget Flahaven on February 24, 1791, whose family were well respected citizens in Philadelphia but left financially weak after the American Revolution. The end of the American Museum led to Carey concentrating solely on bookselling as head of M. Carey & Son and then M. Carey & Sons from 1817 to 1824. He published textbooks, novels, almanacs, atlases, pamphlets, and poetry, taking special care to promote American writers and native literature. But it was publishing Bibles, including the first Roman Catholic edition of the Bible to be printed in the United States, that ultimately kept his business thriving. The business started local before expanding its reach through itinerant booksellers, exchange methods, trade lists, and branch houses. The business reached the South as well as New York and Boston with, respectively, 14 and 16 correspondents in 1814. Carey would eventually retire in 1824 with $8,000 per year, leaving the business to his son Henry Charles Carey.

It was not only Carey who was doing well in the 1790s. The United States was booming. In September 1794, Carey wrote to an Irish relative, “Th human imagination can hardly reach to an idea of the prosperity and importance to which this country is rapidly verging”. The 1790s was a far more ambient economic climate with credit flowing, internal improvements built, agriculture doing well, and the country at peace. Carey corresponded regularly with family and friends in Ireland. Philadelphia in 1790 was home to 26 printers hoping to supply books and pamphlets. In 1795 this number grew to 39. By 1805 the number was 51. This was a decade in which “the process by which a group of late eighteenth-century Philadelphia printers and booksellers evolved into nineteenth-century entrepreneurs of the book trade.”

Colonial publishing had operated within the restrictions of British mercantilism. But the revolution, rise of parties, and the capital being based in Philadelphia drove forward this growth. French emigres, Irish immigrants, and British radicals contributed to a vibrant scene. This was a highly competitive environment in which American books were not as commonly produced as imported European works which were not covered by copyright. Carey set up the American literary fair, modelled on the Leipzig fair, to help booksellers to meet and exchange publications. It was held in June 1802 in New York with Boston and Philadelphia booksellers present. New York and Boston would not overtake Philadelphia until the 1820s and 1830s.

Carey did not run his publishing business according to his political interests. When the capital moved to Washington in 1800, many publishers followed for federal patronage. Those who remained focused on state-level patronage such as Carey pushed for state publishing business. But he was still actively engaged in politics personally. Carey supported ratification of the U.S. Constitution, opposed the Test Acts in the state constitution, and was attracted to the Jeffersonian Republican Party, which contributed towards his struggles with Oswald in 1785 to 1786 and the English radical William Cobbett in 1798. This led Carey to keep his politics separate from business, though still pursuing patronage through practical and nonpartisan means by publishing state laws.

These were active years, but Carey was beginning to comment on American public life just as he had done as a young man in his native Ireland. This started with the publication of an account of the yellow fever epidemic ravaging Philadelphia in 1793. It was translated into three foreign languages and even sent to England. Carey was appointed to a board to help handle the sick and orphaned and control the disease. He provided the nation with a detailed account of what had happened. This helped Carey become a leading philanthropist in the city. In 1790, Carey was already working with Bishop White of the Episcopal Church and Dr Benjamin Rush, a Universalist, to establish Sunday Schools to teach reading and writing as well as religious guidance. December 26, 1790, saw the creation of a formal association for promoting Sunday schools, the first of its kind in the United States. Supporting Sunday schools was good for public morals as well as the publishing businesses as it created more customers, hence Carey’s involvement. This made him one of the most well-regarded citizens in Philadelphia.

The Rising Republic

Carey’s career and ideas were fundamentally shaped by the economic developments he experienced during his life in America. Philadelphia was one of the great cities alongside Boston, New York, and Baltimore. Population was growing and moved westward. The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and Florida acquisition in 1819 encouraged further growth as new states entered the Union. In 1790, five cities had populations over 5,000. But there were also new challenges. Britain had restricted colonial manufacturing and commerce abroad, meaning the colonists mainly produced food and raw materials while importing British manufactured goods. After the war, Americans had currency to spend but little domestic production. British goods overwhelmed infant industries with £6,000,000 imported in 1784-85 but only £1,600,000 of exports and trade with the British West Indies still banned.

Neutrality in the wars between Britain and France led to increased demand for American agriculture and the merchant marine. Tonnage grew from 300,000 in 1793 to 1,268,548 in 1807. Ship building and milling continued but broader manufacturing was not incentivized. This drew attacks from both Britain and France on American merchant shipping. Chief Justice John Jay was sent to sign a treaty with Britain to resolve the crisis. Impressment was not covered by the final treaty with many unresolved issues such as western forts, commercial regulations, and the slave trade. Carey was against the treaty, transferring his pride from Ireland to America, and remaining staunchly anti-British.

When the Jay treaty expired in 1804, Jefferson rejected the new treaty negotiated by Madison. The 1807 Orders in Council and Napoleon’s Berlin decree caused further problems, leading to Jefferson’s trade embargo followed by the 1809 Non-Intercourse Act, paving the way for the War of 1812. Collapse in commerce during the conflict led to the rapid expansion of domestic industries such as cotton, iron, wool, flax, amounting to $200,000,000 in 1810, while tonnage of foreign commerce fell from 981,000 in 1811 to 715,000 in 1812. Many of these industries were present in Philadelphia and witnessed firsthand by Carey.

The end of war in 1815 and Britain’s protective tariff on corn cut off an important export market for American grain. But British manufacturers hoped to dump their products on foreign markets, including the United States. Hezekiah Niles’s Weekly Register in Baltimore, which would become another outlet for supporters of the American System, sounded the alarm when 50 ships arrived from Liverpool with a range of manufactured goods. This created fierce competition with domestic manufacturers. Britain’s struggle with harvests, depression, and unemployment created further instability. Nationalism and fear of European competition created a drive for protectionism in Congress.

Finding the Nation’s Voice

What elevated Carey’s national status and began his contribution to national politics was the War of 1812. The conflict with Britain was going badly and the Madison administration was deeply unpopular. New England flirted with secession. Carey published The Olive Branch: or, Faults on Both Sides, Federal and Democratic in 1814, criticizing the seditious behavior of New England Federalists and the incompetent governance of the Republicans. It ran for ten editions until 1818 and captured the nationalist spirit of wartime, marking a key moment in his thinking as well as the economic thought of the nation more broadly. The book enhanced Carey’s reputation and helped his transition away from his previous Republican partisanship.

Carey’s work on the 1793 yellow fever epidemic and War of 1812 supported the rise of American national feeling and literature. In his autobiography, Carey placed The Olive Branch among his greatest achievements. But the return to peace would bring new challenges. The British politician Henry Brougham spoke in Parliament for flooding the American market with British goods to stifle manufacturing, which only employed 14 percent of Americans in 1820. This caused huge outcry in America and supported the calls for boosting domestic manufacturing. Recovery from the 1816 depression was weak and credit contracted in 1818. Economic crisis returned in 1819 with bank failures, unemployment, and stagnant growth. These experiences primed Carey for a highly productive period of writing and campaigning that would help establish the model of political economy known as the American System.

This article is part of the American System series edited by David A. Cowan and supported by the Common Good Economics Grant Program. The contents of this publication are solely the responsibility of the authors.

David A. Cowan is a Ph.D. Candidate in history at the University of Cambridge and a former staffer and researcher in the UK Parliament. He has been previously published at American Affairs, The American Conservative, Engelsberg Ideas, Fusion, and National Review.